In a speech to the Mansion House banquet of business people tonight, Woolf argued it makes “good business sense” to question whether there’s enough diversity in the City, as the financial district is known. She said just 6 percent of women hold executive-committee and board positions and businesses risk being left behind “if talent does not get to the top.”

Women voters don’t mind Cameron after all The Independent (blog) …But a new analysis of the polls leading up to Cooper’s attack in October 2011 finds that “they mostly point towards an opposite conclusion”. Roger Mortimore, a director of the polling firm Ipsos MORI and professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History, says in a paper in Parliamentary Affairs last week that the Conservatives achieved a bigger swing in their favour among women than among men at the 2010 election, and concludes:

Conservative support among women was not lower than their support among men,* there had not been a big fall in women’s support for the Tories since the election, and women’s support had not declined relative to that of men since the election.

Anjum Anwar from Women’s Voice which is hosting the event said the issue had not been explored and it was hoped that the group would help create more awareness of it. “There is still much shame and stigma in men discussing the issue. “However, what does a 6ft tall man do when he is been attacked by a woman? Does he hit back? Does he keep quiet? “Or does he take the violence, whether physical or verbal? These are the questions that we will be exploring on November 19.”

Refreshments and networking from 4.30pm to 5.45pm and 6pm start at the Lecture Theatre at Blackburn University Centre. International Men’s day is on November 19. The event is at Blackburn University Centre. For more information,email info@womansvoice.info

David Cameron’s bullying Flashman act is now a real turn-off for … The Guardian …Since the general election, the images of the two parties have become much more polarised. The Tory frontbench is still overwhelmingly male; Labour’s shadow cabinet is now nearly 50:50. And apart from Ed Balls, the men who have been given top jobs by Miliband – such as Tristram Hunt and Chuka Umunna – are not bruisers but more thoughtful types who tend to be preferred by female voters.

The parties’ agendas have become more polarised too, particularly since Lynton Crosby started advising Cameron. The Tories are now keen to talk about immigration and Europe: issues that men tend to care about more than women. Labour, by contrast, is concentrating on the cost of living, much closer to home for most female voters. No wonder women are far less likely than men to tell ICM: “David Cameron understands people like me.”

Fiona Woolf, who is only the second woman to hold the post in its 800-year history, used the example of her own appointment to urge businesses to embrace the “new normal” of higher female representation on UK boards. Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet last night,(Mon)) she joked that people should get used to seeing the Lord Mayor wearing earrings and tights “and not just on special occasions”.

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The UK Political Studies Association Women and Politics Specialist Group. Resource for researchers working on women and/or gender and for women in the PSA. The 2014 Specialist Group of the Year.
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